Feds to take closer look at suburban railway

January 20, 2010

Federal regulators said today they are taking a closer look at concerns about noise, vibrations, and train delays along the former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway line.

The Surface Transportation Board will survey all 33 suburbs along the rail line, now owned by the Canadian National Railway, to ask them whether they feel the CN is accurately and completely reporting problems along the line.

The chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, Daniel Elliott III , ordered the action after making two recent tours of the suburbs on the rail line with local officials.

The transportation board is sending out questionnaires to officials in the 33 communities

in Illinois and Indiana affected by CN's controversial acquisition last year of the 198-mile EJ&E line, which runs in an arc from Waukegan to Joliet to Gary.